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2014 Eastern Bloc crisis
The''' 2014 Eastern Bloc crisis''' refers to a series of events and an ongoing period of political and social unrest across the Eastern Bloc and in the Eastern European Soviet Republics which has seen a resurrgence in tensions between the citizenry and governments of the Warsaw Pact member states not seen before since 1989. The crisis errupted in response to a series of policies that were created that favored the increase in power and influence of the Sino-Soviet Union over the Warsaw Pact which many saw as a violation of the Eastern Bloc Reformation Act of 1991 signed into law by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Many of the protesters also expressed their anger and frustration with the Eastern Bloc governments and political structure which they saw as oppressive, authoritarian, and violation of civil liberties citing current actions of state control over the media, regulation of the internet, ethnic and religious persecution and favortism towards the Soviet Union and the errosion of national soveriegnty and the nations becoming de-facto satellite states. The crisis is deeply rooted in the causes of the revolutions of 1989 which was due to heavy dissatisfaction with communist rule over Eastern and Central Europe as well as years of political oppression and authoritarianism at the hands of the Sino-Soviet Union and the monoploy of power that the communist parties had maintained over the Warsaw Pact. While these issues were officially addressed by Premier Gorbachev during his reformation period, such issues have resurfaced due to the policies of Vladimir Putin as Premier of the Soviet Union which has seen the resurgence of communist aggression and corruption in the Warsaw Pact and has acted to have the alliance return back into the union's sphere of influence during the Cold War era. In response, mass protests were held in the cities of Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, and East Berlin which saw the usage of police brutality used on the protestors and even the decleration of martial law in Prague and other parts of Czechoslovakia. Background Revolutions of 1989 On March 9th, 1989, mass protests and eventually full-blown revolution had broken out across the Eastern Bloc that would define the 1980s in Europe as well as a major turning point in 20th century history. Upset over years of authoritarian rule, religious persecution, political repression and state murder lead to thousands of peole across the Eastern Bloc protesting against the various communist regimes that ruled over Eastern and Central Europe since 1955. The revolutions were met with military action when then Premier Jiang Zemin ordered the Soviet People's Army to head into the Warsaw Pact states and collaborate with regime forces to supress the revolutions leading to the deaths of tens of thousands over the course of the following months. This lead to the election of Mikhail Gorbachev by the Communist Party of the Sino-Soviet Union as general secretary that same year and took action against Jiang until August 19th, 1991 when he and his adiministration along with the Central Committee were overthrown in a military coup isntalling Gorbachev into power as the new Soviet leader to restore order and stability to the union. Gorbachev reformations Following Gorbachev's rise to power, the entire Sino-Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc was under martial law and he quickly began new policies to end the tensions and restore peace and stability to the region. Under his adiministration, Soviet troops withdrew from the Eastern Bloc and he past new laws granting the bloc automony and independence from the Soviet Union in exchange for diplomatic and military cooperation much like that of NATO in the Western Bloc. The reforms past and the Warsaw Pact was stablized and order was restored. Communist parties survived, but one part rule was abolished and the Eastern Bloc states began to open up to the rest of the modern world. As a result, the Warsaw Pact states saw an increase of economic growth following the start of the 2000s. 2008 global recession In 2008, the world economy had fallen after the New York Stock Market suffered from a housing crisis in the United States which lead to the Great recession. Eastern Bloc states were hit hard along with the rest of Europe while the Sino-Soviet Union had managed to survive and even passed new laws and policies which helped benefit the nation economically and was able to survive the recession. Seeking to regain influence in the region, the Soviet central government offered a bailout to the Warsaw Pact and they accepted it which made the member states more dependent on the Soviet Union for economic support which angered many automony activitsts and officials who argued that such policies would overturn Gorbachev's reforms. Protests were held across the Warsaw Pact states, but they were relatively small and irrelevant because of the economic decline and the support from the Soviet Union was beenfiting the Warsaw Pact states and kept them afloat economically, but such issues wouldn't go away for good and would be recurring issues for the alliance. East Berlin protests The first of the protests had occured in East Berlin on November 18th, 2014 when democracy activitsts marched in the city streets demanding that the East German government cease its regulation of the internet and allow for the people of East Germany to be connected to the outside world citing that they could no longer be separated from their relatives and friends in West Germany. The East German government had responded by sending in riot police to corner the protestors and all media outlets were heavuly regulated on their reporting of the situation. After footage and images were broadcasted live to the Western Bloc states showing riot police attacking non-violent protestors, the footage was shown to the people of the Eastern Bloc states which motivated many East Germans to stage larger mass protests and staged their signature Occupy East Berlin to convince the government to de-regulate the internet and called for the resignation of Chancellor Stanislaw Tillich and his adiministration. In order to maintain his position and avoid retribution from Moscow, Chancellor Tillich began de-regulating internet access into East Germany and lifted bans on various websites such as Wikipedia and Youtube, though certain articles and content remain censored in the country. Euromaidan protests ''Main Article: Euromaidan '' East German authorities had originally assumed that the protests of East Berlin would be the only site of discontent between the Warsaw Pact governments and the populace, but it wsa far from true as soom afterwards, a group was formed called Euromaiden and it began making demonstrations across the entire Eastern Bloc calling for independence and automony from the Sino-Soviet Union and advocating for the abolition of the Warsaw Pact in favor of its member states joining the European Union in the Western Bloc. The first rally was in Warsaw, Poland where Polish protestors called for the resignation of all leaders of the Polish United Workers' Party and for the democratization and westernization of the Polish People's Republic. Polish authorities wer reluctant to bend to the wills of the activists and had militarized police flood the streets of Warsaw and the capital was put into a state of martial law in response. Further Euromaidan activities errupted across other neighboring countries such as Czechoslovakia where Euromaidan activists protested against the communist regime and its constant use of propaganda against political opposition and calls were made for a multi-party democracy and the end of single-party rule. Similiar sentiments further spread to the Baltic states where democracy activists protested against years of Soviet rule and called for independence and/or greater sovereignty over the Baltic Soviet republics. Category:Sino-Soviet Union Category:Events Category:Revolutions